Isabella "Ivy" Valentine (イザベラ・バレンタイン - アイヴィー, Izabera Barentain - Aivī) made her first appearance in Soulcalibur and has returned in all the sequels. Ivy is the oldest female character and well known for her revealing outfits and wide sex appeal. With Soulcalibur II, the development team chose her as their favorite character from the previous title. Producer Hiroaki Yotoriyama felt that her fighting style wasn't perfectly expressed in Soulcalibur, and focused on Ivy from from the start of the project to make her more "uniquely lethal".

Biography: Soulcalibur

Ivy was raised with love in the home of the English nobles, the Valentines. However, her father, Count Valentine, died a madman, driven to insanity by his obsession with alchemy. The Count squandered the family fortune on the pursuit of alchemy. Soon after the fall of the Valentine family, Ivy learned from her mother, on her death bed, that she was adopted.

Ivy had no interest in finding her biological parents. Ivy eventually learned about her fathers search for Soul Edge and began to follow in his footsteps in it's quest. She became an alchemist. Ivy learned that Soul Edge was evil and vowed to destroy it. She succeeded in creating a weapon suited for this purpose through ancient sorcery.

Biography: Soulcalibur II

When Ivy left on her journey, she crossed paths with Nightmare, who she had previously summoned to breath life into her blade. She agreed to help him in a ceremony to summon souls, oblivious to the fact that this was all part of the demonic blade's plan. Ivy discovered the truth on the day that Nightmare was defeated and Soul Edge was shattered.

She realized that Nightmare possessed Soul Edge and that her father was Cervantes, who had been manipulated by it's dark powers. Shaken by the horrible truth, Ivy sealed herself away in her laboratory. After month of soul searching, Ivy returned with a renewed drive to destroy Soul Edge and everything connected to it. She renamed her sword, which shared her fate, Valentine.

Biography: Soulcalibur III

Ivy was on a quest to destroy everything associated with Soul Edge. In her mission, she often had slain the innocent, but that didn't matter. All that mattered was that Soul Edge be exterminated. Ivy's sword had begun to change. It was unstable. She decided to return to her alchemy lab in order to investigate this. Once there, she would have access to her equipment. On the way home, she stopped into a certain academic English town. There, she bought some books about the secret arts. Both old and new books had been gathered to the one place.

When she returned home, she looked through the books she had bought. One of them stood out. It revealed the nature of Soul Edge. As far as she knew, this was the most detailed information ever gathered on the subject. As she deciphered the ancient text, she discovered the other sword. Soul Calibur. It was a sword that restrained the power of the evil sword, and fought against it. This seemed almost too good to be true, but the precise nature of the text didn't seem to be fiction.

Over the course of a month, Ivy discovered every detail about the sword. The thought that it existed excited her. She closed her eyes in contemplation, but the sound of the door opening startled her. "Who are you?" She asked in a firm tone. "Did you read the book?" The man asked in a quiet, cold voice. The man was tall, with dark skin, wearing a robe. In the following silence they both learned the answer to their respective questions. Ivy grabbed the book and stepped back. She drew her weapon. The man drew a scythe, seemingly out of nowhere. The battle ensued. The man struck very precise strikes with his weapon, but Valentine was able to deflect them all in a flurry of clashing steel.

"Damn it!" Ivy clenched her teeth. She had to concentrate harder than usual to control her sword. This slight distraction gave the man an opening. Ivy was knocked back by the force of the blow. She dropped the book, and the man picked it up. "This is a mistake from my past," the man said. "The world no longer needs this." The book burst into flames. He dropped the book on the floor. The flames spread with an unusual fervor, separating the two. "Stop!" "If you wish to learn everything about the cursed sword and the spirit world, then follow the knight you know well..." With these words the man disappeared behind the curtain of flames.

The wall of flames surrounded Ivy. She was not afraid, but she could not allow it to destroy her precious lab. She gave up her pursuit. Ivy looked into the darkness. She pondered. She had lost the book, but it's contents were etched into her memory. And although she was angry at the man for the way he had treated her, she believed him. It was decided. She would set out once more. She would find the truth about Soul Calibur, and obtain it for herself!

Biography: Soulcalibur IV

Ivy continued to search for a way to destroy the cursed sword, and arrived at a great empire to the East where she learned of the spirit sword. However, this presented a new problem. The blood of the cursed sword that coursed through Ivy's veins would prevent her from ever wielding the spirit sword. Even if she could find it, she would not be able to use it to destroy the cursed sword. Ivy interrupted her journey and returned to her family mnsion, where she once again delved into her alchemic research. But jsut as she began to close in on success, her experiements were cut short by a sudden attack. Cervantes, her own cursed, inhuman father, had come to rob his own flesh and blood, to take his daughter's soul.

Ivy lost that deadly fight, and the man nearly consumed her soul entirely, but Ivy had one last chance. She had been searching for the means to fabricate a being that could wield the spirit sword. Ivy used the artificial soul that would have animated that being to save her own life instead, but the research had been incomplete. Death would come to her, sooner or later. Ivy took up the snake sword that was her other half. She had lost much of the soul that connected her to the weapon, but it still responded to her. Yes, she could fight with it. And the new soul she had created, even though mixed with Ivy's own cursed soul, remained pure. Perhaps she could wield the spirit sword now? Ivy would fullfill her oath and destroy Soul Edge. Resolutely, she set out on her last journey.

Biography: Soulcalibur V

Ivy had rushed to Ostrheinsburg in order to destroy Soul Edge; instead she faced her father, Cervantes. She prevailed, ruthlessly dispatching her father in their final, fateful duel. But before she could move on to her true quarry, the sky tore apart. Soul Edge, its physical form shattered, disappeared into the rift above. Others called this victory, but Ivy knew better.

Having spent a lifetime studying the cursed sword's cycle of destruction and rebirth, Ivy was convinced that Soul Edge was merely biding its time in another dimension, awaiting the day it could be born again in our world. The sword itself may be beyond her reach, she reasoned, but what if she could rob it of its refuge? What if she could destroy the world beyond the rift?

For over a decade Ivy researched the sword's home, a place she came to call "Astral Chaos." Her body, with the blood of the cursed sword flowing in its veins, seemed to have forgotten to age. It was Soul Edge that had thrust this destiny upon her, and Ivy would not rest until the cursed sword was purged from all existence.